IndyCar Series 2025 schedule: When is the 2025 Indianapolis 500?
The 2025 IndyCar Series schedule includes 17 races, highlighted by the Indianapolis 500 on May 25 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
After saving the event from falling off IndyCar’s 2024 calendar and delivering the most successful, exuberant season-finale in years, Scott Borchetta won’t be the promoter of the Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway.
Borchetta and Penske Entertainment confirmed the decision Thursday morning, making Penske Entertainment Corp. the promoter of seven races – the newly-acquired Long Beach Grand Prix, IMS road course race, Indianapolis 500, Detroit Grand Prix and the Iowa Speedway doubleheader, along with Nashville. IndyCar brass also remain heavily involved at the Milwaukee Mile and the Thermal Club.
Additionally, Penske Entertainment will serve as co-promoter for the Arlington Grand Prix around the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers stadiums in 2026 and is courting additional races in Mexico City, which sources currently expect to be rolled out for 2026, and Denver, which series officials haven’t been shy of characterizing as an aspirational market to add, but which is not a done deal to land for 2027.
The recent moves come as Penske Entertaiment attempts to more actively control its own destiny and shape the layout and implementation of its six-month race calendar, which in 2025 will be broadcast exclusively on network TV in the U.S. by Fox.
To execute Penske Entertainment’s growing role in the market, Anne Fischgrund, who joined the series as an intern in 2011 and spent more than a decade in various marketing and promoter/media relations, event promotion and operations roles for nearly 14 years, has been named the new president of the Music City Grand Prix. She previously served as the general manager of the Hy-Vee IndyCar doubleheader weekend since the series announced its return in August 2021.
Borchetta, the founder, president and CEO of Big Machine Label Group and all its related companies, will continue to serve as a liaison to Nashville’s entertainment community and civic leaders in order to maintain the Grand Prix’s connection to Nashville while the on-track action occurs 40 minutes west. Borchetta will continue to host a kickoff party in downtown Nashville on the Friday of race weekend (Aug. 29) with music and entertainment acts to be announced at a later date.
Big Machine will also continue to be the race weekend’s title sponsor, a role it has held since the event’s debut in 2021.
“Year 1 at Nashville Superspeedway was a tremendous success, thanks in great part to the terrific partnership and strong leadership exhibited by Scott Borchetta and his team at Big Machine,” Penske Entertainment Corp. president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “As we grow our event portfolio at Penske Entertainment, it’s strategically important to take the reins of our season finale at such an exciting and renowned racetrack.
“And to see the relationship with Big Machine carry forward through this continued partnership only underscores the growth opportunities before us in the Music City.”
Sources: IndyCar mulled proposed change to championship format
According to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the dealings who spoke with IndyStar, Thursday’s shakeup to IndyCar’s season-finale came largely due to Borchetta’s desire to take a step back from having such a hands-on role alongside his extensive responsibilities atop Big Machine Label Group, combined with Penske Entertainment’s growing desire to be more hands-on with races on its calendar.
Though not said to be an ultimatum, multiple sources indicated that Borchetta and Big Machine approached Penske Entertainment with a proposal to alter the series’ championship format to ensure the series title would be decided in the season-finale Grand Prix. Such a format change was brought to the table by Borchetta and Big Machine as a way to add value and drama to the finale.
Among the formats discussed in the early-stage conversations were a playoff-like setup similar to NASCAR, though one that would’ve been smaller in size, given IndyCar’s current 17-race regular season versus the Cup series’ 36 races (a 26-race regular season and 10-race playoff model). IndyStar understands that after surveying key stakeholders, Penske Entertainment felt like most partners were satisfied with the status quo because the championship has been decided at the finale in 18 of the last 19 seasons and the outsized effect such a change would have on the championship. No title race format changes were given more than an exploratory look.
Once those proposed changes were declined, discussions turned to the new promotional format, puttihg both sides’ strengths at the forefront while critically keeping both heavily involved.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.indystar.com ’
